2015 FIBT World Championships – Two-Man Bobsled

March 1, 2015 ken Bobsled News, News 0

From Winterberg, Germany

After a disappointing 2013/2014 Olympic season, Germany once again is atop the podium in World Championships, as Francesco Friedrich takes the gold medal in the 2015 FIBT World Championships. The race wasn’t even close, as Friedrich finished over a second ahead of second place, setting a track record in his third run.

The battle for silver was a tight one, with .01 separating Johannes Lochner of Germany and World Cup champion Oskars Melbardis. After four runs, and miles of track, the Latvian and German tied for silver with matching 3:44.36 overall times.  Former World Champ Beat Hefti took fourth, just ahead of Korean Yunjong Won.

Weather on Friday led to a disappointing weekend for the North American teams in two-man. Nick Cunningham led the way for the United States with a 12th place set of runs.  Former world champion Steven Holcomb had major trouble with snow on Friday, but charged back on Sunday, working his way up into 17th after coming into the day in 21st.  Codie Bascue finishes his first two-man World Championships in 24th.

Nick Poloniato was the fastest Canadian, finishing just behind Russian Alexander Kasjanov in 16th.  Teammate Chris Spring finished 18th, while Justin Kripps got hammered with snow on his first run, and finished 21st after coming into the second heat back in 30th.

Lamin Deen led the way for Great Britain, finishing 14th, while Olly Biddulph finished 28th.

Results:

Pos Names Nation Bib Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4 Total
1 Friedrich/Margis GER 4 56.47 56.08 55.23 55.52 3:43.30
2 Lochner/Bluhm GER 9 56.73 56.41 55.39 55.83 3:44.36
2 Melbardis/Dreiskens LAT 2 56.79 56.22 55.51 55.84 3:44.36
4 Hefti/Baumann SUI 3 56.92 56.38 55.36 55.86 3:44.52
5 Won/Seo KOR 10 56.63 56.46 55.66 55.94 3:44.69
6 Zalims/Dambis LAT 16 56.62 56.41 55.74 55.93 3:44.70
7 Peter/van der Zijde SUI 5 56.84 56.34 55.63 55.90 3:44.71
8 Kibermanis/Leiboms LAT 12 56.89 56.50 55.73 55.96 3:45.08
9 Oelsner/Franke GER 30 56.51 56.67 55.90 56.15 3:45.23
10 Walther/Hübenbecker GER 6 56.97 56.59 55.79 55.91 3:45.26
11 Stulnev/Antukh RUS 14 56.89 56.54 56.16 55.92 3:45.51
12 Cunningham/Harrison USA 11 56.97 56.63 56.05 55.96 3:45.61
13 Andrianov/Mokrousov RUS 18 56.76 56.66 56.00 56.30 3:45.72
14 Deen/Williamson GBR 21 56.93 56.57 56.03 56.26 3:45.79
15 Kasjanov/Pushkarev RUS 8 57.17 56.80 56.05 55.88 3:45.90
16 Poloniato/Barnett CAN 17 56.93 56.65 56.42 56.09 3:46.09
17 Holcomb/Valdes USA 7 57.10 57.27 55.89 56.08 3:46.34
18 Spring/Plug CAN 15 57.34 56.80 56.27 56.07 3:46.48
19 Luty/Tylkowski POL 26 56.99 57.01 56.43 56.35 3:46.78
20 Costerg/Heinrich FRA 20 56.93 56.90 56.60 56.54 3:46.97
21 Kripps/Brown CAN 1 57.58 56.68 56.19 2:50.45
22 Maier/Sammer AUT 23 56.98 57.45 56.50 2:50.93
23 Rinaldi/Vainn MON 19 57.04 57.43 56.64 2:51.11
24 Bascue/Victorian USA 13 57.33 57.18 56.73 2:51.24
25 Wesselink/Brink NED 24 57.36 57.20 56.73 2:51.29
26 Matousek/Suchy CZE 31 57.65 57.02 56.82 2:51.49
27 Fontana/Ughi ITA 27 57.12 57.63 56.75 2:51.50
28 Biddulph/Smallin GBR 32 57.25 57.37 56.91 2:51.53
29 Vrba/Nosek CZE 25 57.25 57.53 56.81 2:51.59
30 Radjenovic/Bundalo SRB 29 57.25 57.54 56.96 2:51.75
31 Kim/Jun KOR 22 57.52 57.35 57.07 2:51.94
32 Grigore/Craciun ROU 28 57.60 57.77 57.30 2:52.67
33 Silic/Mezulic CRO 33 59.41 59.78 59.51 2:58.70